Exploring long-term trends in land use change and aboveground human appropriation of net primary production in nine European countries

• Simone Gingrich ^[3] ; Maria Niedertscheider ^[3] ; Thomas Kastner ^[3] ; Helmut Haberl ^[3] ; Georgia Cosor ^[1] ; Fridolin Krausmann ^[3] ; Tobias Kuemmerle ^[2] ; Daniel Müller ; Annabella Reith-Musel ; Martin Rudbeck Jepsen ; Angheluta Vadineanu ; Karl-Heinz Erb
  1. [1] University of Bucharest

     University of Bucharest

     Sector 3, Rumanía

     
  2. [2] Humboldt University of Berlin

     Humboldt University of Berlin

     Berlin, Stadt, Alemania

     
  3. [3] Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Alpen-Adria University. Austria

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• Localización: Land use policy: The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use, ISSN 0264-8377, ISSN-e 1873-5754, Nº. 47, 2015, págs. 426-438
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • Profound changes in land use occurred during the last century in Europe, driven by growing population, changes in affluence, and technological innovation. To capture and understand these changes, we compiled a consistent dataset on the distribution of land-use types and biomass extraction for nine European countries (Albania, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) since the late 19th to early 20th century, when national statistical publications became available. We then calculated a range of indicators within the “human appropriation of net primary production” (HANPP) framework for the nine countries and for the sum of all countries on a yearly basis from 1902 to 2003. We find that cropland and grazing land contracted in all countries except Albania in the observed period, while forestland increased. Crop yields increased in all countries, most strongly during the second half of the 20th century. In some countries, biomass extraction on grazing lands increased to a similar extent. Overall, HANPP was high but declined slightly from 63% of the net primary production of potential vegetation in 1902 to 55% in 2003. This is the result of increasing crop yields on shrinking cropland and grazing land, which was only partly offset by increasing biomass extraction on expanding forests and by expanding settlement areas. HANPP trends on croplands were mostly uniform across countries, but differed substantially on grazing lands. While political differences, e.g., between communist and capitalist countries, did not directly affect HANPP dynamics, economic and population growth were related to increases in biomass extraction for long periods of time in much of the sample, and only in recent decades did the collapse of the Eastern Block’s Comecon market, EU agricultural policy, and world market developments coincide with a stagnation of biomass extraction.